We recently celebrated the 5th birthday of Molly, a reticulated giraffe. We made her a “cake” of carrots, sweet potatoes, romaine lettuce and grain to celebrate her special day. She devoured the goodies, but we were able to share some with the rest of the giraffes! As you have probably seen, we have had two baby giraffes born here since the New Year. Daisy was born on Jan 11, 2014 and was very sick shortly after birth. However, with the help of Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Daisy is a healthy giraffe and stands at over 7 feet tall! Rocket was born on February 19, 2014 and was smaller than Daisy at birth, but we think he will grow big and strong. We are really excited about the babies and can’t wait to share them with our visitors in April. This has been a long winter for all of us and we are ready for Spring!

On Saturday, January 11, 2014 , our reticulated giraffe Dotty gave birth to a calf we named Daisy (150 lbs, 6ft). Dotty was not interested in her calf. She has never seen a calf before (Dotty was born here at the zoo and is the second youngest female here) and we believe she didn’t quite know what to do after the birth! Our veterinarian made a quick, life saving decision to take her to Tufts so she can get the urgent care she needed. We get constant updates from Tufts and one of us goes up there to check on her each day. Great News! She should be coming home very soon, maybe today! We are really excited and a little bit apprehensive as she is a large calf that will need constant care and attention. However, this is one of the reasons we do what we do. It is amazing to be able to see new lives born and grow into the most beautifully amazing creatures, we are blessed. Thank you to everyone who have been asking about Daisy and her mom. Dotty is doing very well and her milk has dried up so we will have to feed Daisy till she is off formula. Can you keep a secret? We may have another blessed event here at the zoo soon…we’ll keep you updated!

Just as the zoo opened on June 26, 2013 our female Yak was in labor! Some of our very lucky visitors witnessed the birth of the Baby Yak…a very special experience! Momma and baby are doing great and are under our watch. Yaks are very hearty animals and the baby stood to nurse right away. In the heat that we have been experiencing we have taken special precautions with cooling down animals under our care and providing extra shade! It takes a lot of teamwork and diligence to make sure every animal is safe and comfortable in the heat….especially mommas and new babies! To be honest, animals do handle the heat much better than us humans!!! Stay hydrated and safe in the heat everyone…and if you are visiting the zoo; take advantage of our mist tents and drink plenty of water! We have a lot of shade in the park so we are very lucky!

The Zookeepers are pretty excited about the Animals & Pumpkins next week. This is the first season that we will be open when the zookeepers give pumpkins to the animals and we’re all curious about what the animals will do with them! The zookeepers are asking for some fall produce donations for the animals for enrichment activities. The zookeepers would like to thank everyone who have brought donations like blankets, toys, radios. etc. for the animals. Cornstalks were donated by Whittier Farms last week and given to some of the animals. The Mangabey monkeys ripped them apart, the capuchins played with them, some of the other animals tried to eat them…it was a great success! An African Crested Porcupine was born a couple of weeks ago and will spend some of his days at the Earth Discover Center when not with his foster family (momma porcupine wasn’t able to care for him). He is so cute!

We’ve had a Grivet Monkey born on December 31, 2008 and more recently a Schmidt’s Guenon baby born on January 11, 2009. Moms and babies are doing great and they’re growing so fast. We’ve been focusing on enrichment for the primates and getting creative. We’ve made newspaper pinatas and stuffed boxes with hay and food treats, then wrapped them for the animals to open. The primates were very interested in these items and especially had fun making a mess getting to the goodies!

All enrichment activities and food treats are approved by the veterinarian.

A baby Aoudad (Barbary Sheep) was born on January 2, 2009. The Tigers (1 yr old) have been having a blast playing in the snow as it is their first winter able to go outdoors. We’ve watched them pouncing, stalking, and wrestling in the the snow piles during the day. They’re able to go inside when they get cold, but so far they are really enjoying going outside during the winter!

Latest From the Zookeeper’s Diary

Our youngest chimpanzee, Tanzie, turned 6 years old last week on March 6th. We waited celebrated her big day yesterday since it was finally sunny out! Last year we made paper mache balloons and gift boxes stuffed with assorted treats. This year our zookeepers surprised Tanzie, and the other chimps as well, with snowmen decorated […]